CityView Magazine

16 September 2023 For airport chief, the sky's the limit BY GARY MANGUM PHOTOGRAPHY BY TONY WOOTEN T he Aviation Career Education Academy is a pet project for Fayetteville Regional Airport Director Toney Coleman. e second-year program introduces Cumberland County students to aviation and aerospace career fields. is year, 41 students ages 9 to 17 took part. For Coleman, it's all about teaching students the joy of flying. Many are from lower socio-economic groups, and that's something Coleman can relate to because he comes from humble beginnings. He told the students that he was the youngest of 15 siblings growing up in Winston-Salem. His parents were the Rev. James A. and Annie B. Coleman. "I was just wanting to be able to fly because I saw the Blue Angels flying over our project area from the Smith Reynolds Airport," Coleman remembers. "I just said, 'I could do that.' "at was amazing to me. As one of the kids pointed out in the class, the only person who can stop you is you. But all my friends were saying, 'Nobody's going to let you fly.' And I thought to myself, 'Well, who do I need to talk to about letting me fly?'" He found people who helped him achieve his dream, starting out as a teenager using money he earned from a dishwashing job at a Holiday Inn to pay for flight lessons. "But the bottom line is, I did get that opportunity to fly. And there's some folks that I wish I could find now who helped me complete the process." Coleman began studying aviation at Winston-Salem State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree. He earned a master's from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a doctoral Toney Coleman

• Cover